Vigour, crop load and thinning

Fruit maturity at harvest plays a key role in quality. Dario Stefanelli, of Agriculture Victoria, outlines the results of trials into the effect of crop load on fruit maturity which form part of an international collaborative project to better understand biennial bearing. Apples are among the most important commercial fruit crops grown worldwide. Meeting market [...]

As the temperatures in the orchard start to rise, AgFirst’s John Wilton looks at how to minimise sunburn, avoid nutrition-related problems and improve colour towards lifting quality and packouts at harvest. By now, the first pass of hand thinning should have been completed. In order to produce high quality fruit, it is necessary to groom [...]

While still in its very early stages, a new project aims to develop a system to measure tree canopy and flower density to help growers choose an optimal chemical thinning regime for apple flowers. A new levy-funded project will look at using agricultural robots to measure tree canopy and flower density and deliver a more [...]

With growers looking to set up their crop for the coming season with the possibility of limited water, AgFirst’s John Wilton explores ways to grow marketable crops in a dry year; methods that are also relevant if water is not an issue. High quality requires thinning to well-spaced singles. Matching crop load to [...]

Could a tool used in the US to help apple growers better manage secondary thinning to optimise fruit quality and maximise productivity be of use in Australia? PIPS researchers plan to find out. Apple trees produce more flowers than the number of fruit that growers wish to crop. Growers need to manage this oversupply of [...]

A new levy-funded project will look at using agricultural robots to measure tree canopy and flower density and deliver a more precise, variable spraying solution for apple flower thinning. Led by Queensland-based SwarmFarm Robotics, the Developing Agri-Tech solutions for the Australian apple industry project is tasked with developing a new system to measure tree canopy [...]

In a commercial orchard in Tasmania a mix of different thinning and crop load management techniques have been put to the test, shedding light on which ones are the most cost- and time-effective to implement, and what impact they have on fruit quality and yield. A trial conducted in this Gala orchard in Tasmania [...]

AgFirst's John Wilton looks at what to do now to prepare for the 2018 crop covering thinning, setting crop loads, summer pruning and tree vigour management. Healthy Jazz buds. By now it should be possible to see the level of fruitset for the coming crop and determine how effective chemical thinning programs have [...]